Using middle name as first name

[Snowdrops]

I've always found (for school registers etc) that they ask your name, then ask what you'd like to be called.

But I agree with everyone else. You can be called whatever you want to be called. It's only on official things that you have to use the correct name (the one which is on your birth certificate).

[TraffordMum]

My son is just 2 so do you think its perhaps better to just change by deed poll or its probably not worth the hassle? I wanted to avoid that hassle but perhaps that can save him more hassle. It seems a bit silly doing the deed poll simply to swap middle name for the first name. Whatever we were thinking when we gave him that Firstname

Oh, OK. I was thinking it was a stroppy teenager rebelling

I would mull it over for a week or two and make a list of the pros and cons. The main thing at this age is that it would be relatively easy to do since there can't be that many places where you would need to change his name other than passport if you have one.

If you are sure you want to make the change then it is relatively cheap to actually effect the deed poll - just google it and you'll find any number of sites for about £15-£20.

In terms of passport you could wait until it comes up for renewal and send deed poll then so as to save cost of an extra renewal to change name.

Having looked in a bit more detail now I find out that you can't change the birth certificate at all. You would need to submit birth certificate plus deed poll as evidence of identity if such were required in the future.

I am sending you a PM as well.

[hermanmunster]

Sherry if you are happy with the middle name then just start using that and whenever there is anything formal then give the name in full and underline the middle name or put John Andrew (known as Andrew) ... it will be fine - there are loads of people doing this.....

... I remember going into a polling station in zummerzet and finding the ballot paper saying Jeremy John Dunham Ashdown ... (huh???) fortunately in brackets it said (known as Paddy )

[sherry_d]

We already use the middle name, was starting to get paranoid that perhaps when he starts school they will start calling him by his firstname which he doesnt even recognise.

I think we will just leave it as it is and not bother with deed poll.

Thank you all.

[turtleglos]

When I was a child my mother remarried. I took on my new families surname so that I felt part of the family when siblings were born. We moved a lot and all school,dr notes etc were in new name although nothing was done legally. This was all ok until I needed a passport in the name I used After sending loads of supporting docs I had 1 issued in my new name. Then I could also get a driving licence
Slightly extreme but shows you dont have to change your name legally.

[Snowdrops]

I wonder if you'd (not you in particular, anyone) be able to get away with doing that now? The world's a hugely different place these days - not like back then when things were oh so simple.

[doodles]

Whatever we were thinking when we gave him that Firstname

I am intrigued as to what name can be that bad!!

DS1 has a very ordinary name - OH wanted a name that could be shouted across a pub (!) in future years and he wouldn't be embarassed! DS2 is slightly more trendy (for us that is, so actually probably quite conservative) and the poor mite has his name spelt every which way!!!

[Tolstoy]

DS2 is called by a short version of his middle name and it has never been an issue at school, both primary and now secondary. Dental appiontments etc are usually addressed to him in first name but for a long time he didn't even realise he had another name so I wouldn't worry too much. That is unless he has a pain of an older brother who spills the beans, both at new school and on the school bus ...was a bit of an issue on his first day but thankfully no longer .

[Milla]

I'd hold fire at this stage on actually changing it - your mind is possibly deranged at the moment given the, er, tests your daughter's got on her plate.
Like all the others, I know of several people who are routinely known by their second name - one boy was called, say, Mark James because the father was called Mark (odd, I think, to have two people in the same family with the same name but there you go) but was called James straight from the off. God daughter the same (no! not Mark James, silly).
Think of it like nicknames, like Tolstoy's son. My DS1 has a "normal" shortening of a name (think Chris for Christopher, but not). My DS2 has a bizarre made up shortening which is not his real name but he insisted on being called it - to the extent that i ordered name labels for school in it. Now he's toying with being called the proper name and I notice that all his school books have his "proper" name on it, written by him (the school had asked, like others have said, for his "preferred name").
So, don't do anything legal or hasty, partic while you're understandably of vaguely unsound mind!

[Amber]

I knew a girl who at Year 9 in GS was still known by her own baby mispronunciation of her name. I can't communicate here how stupid this abbreviation was; but think along the lines of Snuggleboo and you are someway there. Her entire family and all teachers were in on the act. I can't imagine why a teenage girl would want this, but there you go. She must have left school now and was aiming for the medical profession, so I imagine at some point the pseudonym would have to go. My son also has a child in his class who is known by her own choice of name, which is completely unrelated to her real name, indeed to any name at all because it is a verb.

Edited just in case my original rendition was too close to the truth and Snuggleboo was reading this, by some freak chance!